Potato-peeler.



N 8'77 550. PATENTED JAN. 28 1908.

o 0. H. CLARK.

POTATO PEELER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR,13.1907.

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No. 877,550. PATENTED JAN. 28, 1908.

0. H. CLARK.

POTATO PEELER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 13. 1907. I I 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

IIll|llllllllllllllllllllllllllll WI mumw mill/III UNITED STATES CHARLES H. CLARK, OF NEW YORK, N.

Y., ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM H. 'LAIRD, or

NEW YORK, N. Y.

POTATO-PEELER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 28, 1908.

Application filed March 13.1907- Serial No. 362.126.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES H. CLARK, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Manhattan, city of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Potato-Peelers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to pptato peelers and has for an object to provide improved mechanismfor this purpose which will effectively remove the skins or peels from vegetables, and particularly potatoes, and this without injuring the potato or removing any undue quantity of the starchy layer which is situated immediately beneath the skin.

The invention also provides means whereby the action of the device may be regulated to accommodate the same for actuating upon either old or new potatoes. The skin of the new potato slips off so much more easily than does the skin of an old potato that it is found unnecessarily wasteful to run new potatoes through a machine set and designed for removing the skin from old potatoes.

The machine illustrated rendered highly efficient by means of the centrifugal action of the potatoes under treatment and is provided with a door or chute in its side, which may be opened, and from which the potatoes may be ejected by means of such centrifugal force or movement. A,

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification Figure 1 is a perspective view of a form of mechanism embodying my present improvement. Fig. 2 is a central vertical section of the device illustrated in F 1. The supporting legs or framework and a portion of the driving mechanism has been omitted in this view. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the abrasive lining removed from-the receptacle for the potatoes. Fig. 4 is a plan view of a broken away portion of the receptacle showing the doors and the chute forming members. Fig. 5 is an enlarged section through the hinge and locking portion of thesedoors. Fig. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of the trap for the collection and removal of the peelings and refuse from the machine, and Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 4, but showing the doors open.

This invention is particularly adapted for use upon potatoes, but other vegetables which are required to have their peels or 7 skins taken off before being used may also be treated with this apparatus.

It has been found that brushes which have been used in potato peeling machines become so clogged up with the peelings and the portions of the meat of the potato which are re and are most difficult to cleanse. The present improvement contemplates employing abraslve or grinding surfaces for grinding the centrifugal motion is made use of to hold the potatoes against the abrasive surface. The abrasive may consist of carborundum in sufficiently coarse. form to effect the desired attrition upon the vegetables under treatment, and this maybe secured to the surfaces of the casing and the plates by means of varnish, and when sufficiently dry the plates so treated may be baked. This will give an abrasive coating upon the plates which will yield slightly as the plates yield and will not be injuriously effected'by the water which is constantly present while the machine is in operation.

The mechanism is shown as supported upon a framework having a table portion 10 provided with legs 11, which in practice may preferably be fastened to the floor if the device is to be run by power. In the present instance a driving shaft 12 is illustrated carried by the framework and having at one end fast and loose pulleys 13 driven by belting, not shown, and at the other end a spur gear 14 meshing with a pinion 15, which is connected with an electric motor designated by 16. The motor is shown supported by a bracket 17 carried by the legs of the frame. It is illustrated as a convenient mode of driving the device and operating it, but, of course, it forms no part of the present invention and its details of construction will not further be entered into. The receptacle 20 for the grinding devices and for receiving the potatoes under treatment is shown as embodying a substantially cylindrical casing 21 which is supported by an offset of the base portion 22 of the receptacle, which base portion is shown as supported by an upstanding flange 23 of the table portion. These parts are so constructed that they may be raised together or separately from the frame. A shoulder 24 within the flange face 22 u on which the casing 21 rests is made wider t an moved that they rapidly become ineffective,

skins or peelings off of the potatoes, and a.

receptacle forthe vegetables is shown as a plate 30 which has a hub 31 upon it and this hub has a square opening for receiving the squared end 32 of the shaft 33 which is shown as carrying a bevel gear wheel 34 meshing with a bevel pinion 35 upon the driving shaft 12.

In the present construction, the abrasive member 25 is held from rotation and the plate 30 is rotated. By the rotation of this plate the vegetables under treatment will be thrownoutwardly against the walls of the abrasive material and given a circular motion tending outwardly which will'eifect the grindin and during such movement the skins Wlll be removed.

To facilitate the plate in effecting the centrifugal movement and the revolution of the vegetables, and also to supplement the action of the abrasive member 25, the plate 30 may be provided with an abrasive and is shown -covered by a plate 36 having upon it abrasive-material. This plate is shown as riveted to the plate 30. The rivets of course may be merely sufficient to hold it in place and when it is desired to change the positions of the abrasive surfaces upon the member 25, as for instance to adapt the device for use upon new potatoes when it is set for old, the member 25 may be inverted. And the rivets above alluded to, may be driven out and plate 36 turned over, it being rovided with abrasive material upon each of its faces and such abrasive material will be fine and coarse on the respective sides to correspond with that on the body 25, or be of such relative degree of coarseness as occasion may demand. Space, as indicated at 40 in Fig. 4, Will be provided between the plate 30 and the outer walls of the casin in the resent instance, the walls defined y the ahrasivebody 25.

And through such 0 ening, the skins and particles ground off rom the potatoes will pass.

The grinding will preferably be in the presence of water and this may be sup lied y means of a pipe 41 having a circu arly formed end 42 provided with openings which will spray the water down over the abrasive material thus assisting in the work of grinding oil the skins, and freeing the face of the abrasive material from the matter which it has ground from the potatoes and flushing this down through the opening 40 into the bottom of the device below the plate 30 toward one portion. At the lowest portion of which there is shown a flange 44 having one member 45 of a bayonet joint. This will constitute a trap for the paringsand other matter carried away from the receptacle, the trap may be closed by a member 47 (seev Fig. 6) which has the other member 48 of a bayonet joint. This closure will carry a stand-pipe 49-through which the water and the lighter and smallerparticles of skin and vegetable will pass, the heavy and larger portions finding lodgment in the trap, from which they may be removed from time to time as occasion may demand.

The water supply device 42 is shown as carried by a partial cover 50 for the casing 241 which cover is only in the nature of a shield or guard around the edge of the casing and projects inwardly for preventing the contents of the casing when violently agitated being thrown out. In most instances, the bulk of the work will be done in the lower portion of the casing, the additional height and the top guard being to restrain the outward movement of the articles being treated when certain of the conditions of their work or rapidity of movementmay throw them upward. The bottom member 43 is shown as carrying a bearing for the shaft 33, the up er portion ofwhich bearing supports the hu 31. 4

The potatoes for treatment may be thrown into the casing without removing the top. guard and after completion of the )eeling operation and while the plate 30 is stil being rotated, doors 51 and 52 which control a chute may be opened and the potatoes ejected. These doors are hinged to the frame 53 of an o ening through the walls 21. In practice rst the door 51 will be closed and then the door 52 will be closed upon it, and may be locked by means of a latch 54 controlled by a handle 55. This will latch. over the free end of the door 51 and the hinge end of the door 52. Plates 56 and 57 are carried by the res ective doors at their lower portions ands ide through the framework 53 and below the plate 30., In Fig. 1 the doors are shown as open and these, open doors and the plates 56 and- 57 constitute a chute through which the potatoes will be ejected by centrifugal motion im arted to them by the plate 30. This can be accomplished without stopping the machine. The potatoes will, responsive to the centrifugal force, imparted to them, and by the assistance of the plate hinge end of one of the doors and when the doors are open, as shown in Fig, 7, this will project into the chamber in which the vegetables are being treated for directing them out into the chute. When the doors are in a clos -d' position, see Fig. 4, this plate 60 will 'which may have a closed end '43 slanting .60, readily pass out through this chute. The plate 60 just referred to is carried by the lie close to the wall of the casing and will not interfere with the operation of the vegetables under treatment. The doors may then be closed and a fresh charge laced in thereceptacle and all this may e done without stopping the machine. The continuous flow of water during the discharge of the potatoes will insure them bein thoroughly washed immediately prior to their delivery.

The guard or cover '50 may be readily removable from the casing member 21 and with it carry thepipe 41. A flange 58 is provided on the to guard to receive a lid 1f it is found desirab e to employ one.

Having described my invention I claim:

1. The combination with a vertical casing, of a sheet metal member carried therein and provided upon its inner face with coarse abrasive material at one end and fine abrasive at the other end, a rotary bottom plate for the receptacle, and a sheet metal plate carried by said bottom plate and having abrasive material upon its respective faces correscponding tothat on the respective ends of sai removable wall.

2. The combination With a receptacle having abrasive material upon its inner walls, of a bottom plate of less radius than said walls and rotatable therein, a guard resting upon the casing and projecting inwardly from the same, a water pipe carried by said guard, a bottom member for said casing having one portion lower than the other portions, a

anged opening at such lower portion provided with one member of a bayonet joint, a

member 0 said bayonet joint, a stand-[pipe carried by said closure, a bearing carrie y said bottom member, a shaft in said bearing member, said plate havin a hub for resting upon said bearing and said plate having an angular opening for receiving the end of the shaft.-

3. In a peeling machine, the combination with a casing having an abrasive lining and having an opening in its side, of a pair of doors pivoted to such casing and adapted to overlap and close said openin lat'es carried by the bottom of each of sai oorsand adapted to pass through the opening when the doors are closed and to constitute with the doors when 0 ened a chute, and a plate carried by one of -t e doors for directing material to said chute.

4. In a peeling machine, the combination with a casing having an abrasive lining and havin an opening in its side, a rotary abrasive p ate forming the bottom of said casing, doors pivoted to said casing adjacent to the o ening and each adapted to form a closure t erefor, and plates carried by the bottoms of said doors and adapted to pass through said 0 enin and below said rotary abrasive p ate -w en the doors are closed.

CHARLES H. CLARK." Witnesses:

OHAs. LYON RUssELL, FRED. J. Dow.

closure ca for said flange having the other 7 

